Armed robbery suspect who used taxis to commit crime arrested

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. – An armed robbery suspect who used two different taxi companies to commit his crime has been arrested.

Officials say around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, 911 dispatchers received a “hold up alarm” and then a follow-up call from a female victim, saying she had just been robbed at the Advance America located at 232 S. Air Depot in Midwest City.

The caller described the suspect as a white male who walked up to her, demanded money and showed her a black pistol. The woman said she gave him all the money in the drawer, totaling $1,708. She then said the man left in a yellow van taxi.

Thanks to the help of on-duty dispatchers, who called local taxi cab companies, officials learned that two different cab companies picked up Jason Pickard before and after the robbery.

Jason Pickard

Authorities were able to locate Pickard at the Walmart near I-40 and Macarthur in Oklahoma City and he was arrested.

He was taken to jail on a felony charge of Robbery with a Firearm.

Pickard admitted to police that he committed the robbery but said he was unsure why he did it. He told police he has not been able to find work and was “very hungry and had no where to go.”

“Mr. Pickard obviously didn’t have a very good action plan in place when he committed this crime and our dispatchers did a tremendous job tracking his whereabouts,” Chief Brandon Clabes said. “I can never recall where we have had someone use two different taxi cab companies to perpetrate an armed robbery—I guess he didn’t have the Uber app on his phone,” Clabes added.